Skiing, Fisi announces proposal on safety of training slopes
On the sidelines of an extraordinary meeting of the Italian Winter Sports Federation held on Friday, President Flavio Roda and the Federal Council announced a proposal regarding the safety of training tracks, just a few days after the tragic death of the Italian national team member Matteo Franzoso from the consequences of a serious accident on the track in La Parva, Chile.
“It seems clear that the level of safety standards in training runs needs immediate implementation, to ensure that athletes can do their work in total confidence and being able to rely on all the standard equipment that already exists in the World Cup” reads the Fisi note.
“It is equally clear that this proposal should be implemented, identifying a limited number of tracks (at least for speed) on which to work effectively and with the utmost care, in order to achieve training grounds in which athletes feel confident that they can have all kinds of assistance”.
“At the international level, a number of dedicated speed tracks for training should be identified for all National Alpine Ski Teams (…) By way of example but not limited to: the slope must have international homologation, there must be A, B and C nets, distributed with the same criteria used in the World Cup, there must be full medical service, there must be helicopter rescue, escape routes and any obstacles must be checked at all times, the bottom must be taken care of as it is in Cup races, the athletes must wear all safety equipment required for the major circuit, etc. Once the tracks have been identified and put in total safety, it should be mandatory for the National Teams of all countries to organize training only on those tracks, with a schedule that should be shared”.
“The same parameters should be used for speed training tracks in Italy. Again, a number of tracks located in various regions must be identified, which must serve exclusively for the training of all the teams that do activities: from the National Teams, to the Regional Committee teams, to those of the Sports Groups, to those of the Ski Clubs. The safety equipment that these tracks must have is exactly the same as that required for international training tracks. The costs related to securing these tracks will be borne by the Italian Federation, with the support of the Ministry of Sport. Again, it will become mandatory for everyone to train only on the identified and secured tracks”.
